Remember this?

The previous photos were taken in the early 1970's when Joyce was in control of the garden.

The property has recently been sold again, this time with planning permission for a new house in the back garden.  So the bungalow is due for demolition very soon.   It's been empty for about 10 years following 3 or 4 years' casual occupancy and now Nature is taking over.

There are several sizable saplings growing out of the foundations, one just in front of the kitchen window

The remains of the tin shed on the left side of the drive just inside the gate, now almost submerged in the undergrowth

In invasion of brambles in the back garden

Leylandii and ivy swallowing the house but Reuben's fishpond survives!

The lawn, flower beds and path have completely disappeared under a thick blanket of moss

Polly Flinders

Elizabeth Bennett, Loopy Lou and Polly Garter have gone to Milton to raise funds for the Children's Hospice so
Polly Flinders is on her own

Brighton, January 2015

View from our hotel - a mobile crane building....

another crane!

Brighton seafront

Richard and Greg admiring the view

Richard's not sure what he's got

Baking

Too windy to go out, too muddy for gardening so a baking session in a nice warm kitchen.
Always intended to try making a Pannetone so this is the result!

It was good and the leftovers made a fantastic bread-and-butter pudding!

Post-Christmas 2014

Richard and Tony can't quite believe where they are and check out the satnav

The East Pit, Cherry Hinton Lime Pits, last worked in the 1980s and now a nature reserve.  Not much nature yet, but it's early days in geological time.

There is still some countryside around us but Great Kneighton is looming on the horizon
and another estate is being built on the other side of the hedge



On 30 December we had a visit from my cousin Rosemary and her son Chris.  

Margaret and Rosemary

Richard and Chris (or Little & Large!)

Rosemary, Richard and Chris

One of the few days in the year when Cambridge was relatively free of students AND tourists!

Canada Geese outside St John's

The Mill Pond

Darwin College

Golden Wedding Anniversary

19 December 1964, 11 Bushmead Road, Luton
Margaret and Kate

Arriving at King Street Congregational Church

Back Row - Kate, Reuben, Gerald, Joyce
Front Row - Aunt Amor Humphrey, Grandad Humphrey, Gran Chapman, David, Helen, Cyril

3pm on a December afternoon and it was VERY chilly!

Cake made by Fitzbillie's in Cambridge

Kate and Margaret
Mrs Thatcher wasn't the only one to have a Bag!

Wedding Anniversary flowers from the family

Day in London, 19 November

The redevelopment of the area around Cambridge station continues, no doubt making way for yet another block of flats.

The purpose of our trip was to see the Rembrandt exhibition at the National Gallery.  No photography allowed of course but no restrictions next door in the National Portrait Gallery where there is a free exhibition of works by Grayson Perry, "Who are You?"   The 14 portraits are "images about the nature of identity, snapshots taken from the narratives of people's lives".   The people portrayed have "changed religion or gender, they have lost some of the physical or mental faculties, they have lost status, they belong to a group that is hoping it will be seen differently by society."

Part of the "Comfort Blanket" a large tapestry portraying good and bad facets of life in the UK

Britain is Best as seen from Belfast

Modern Family

The Ashford Hijab

Memory Jar

The Huhne Vase

I am a Man

The Earl of Essex

Jesus Army money box

Georgina

Trafalgar Square